Man rams van into Christmas market in France

NANTES, France Dec 22 (Reuters) - A man ploughed a van into
a crowded Christmas market in Nantes in western France on
Monday, injuring at least 10 people in the country's third
violent attack in as many days.

The driver, who authorities said stabbed himself after the
crash, and four people were badly injured, with one of the
victims in critical condition, local officials said.

France is on high alert for attacks on its soil after calls
from Islamist militants to attack French citizens and interests
in reprisal for the country's military strikes on Islamist
strongholds in the Middle East and Africa this year.

Authorities called on people to keep calm and said the
driver had made no religious or political claims, appeared to
have acted alone, and likely suffered from mental illness.

A local newspaper first reported that the driver had shouted
"Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest" in Arabic), but witnesses told
Reuters that he had not said it.

The incident occurred a day after a man rammed his car into
crowds in the eastern city of Dijon, shouting "Allahu Akbar".
Thirteen people were injured. On Saturday, a man was shot after
he stabbed and wounded three police officers in central France
while yelling "Allahu Akbar".

"We are all concerned about this series of tragedies," Prime
Minister Manuel Valls said in a statement. He said earlier that
"never before have we faced such a high danger of terrorism."

Prosecutors said on Monday that the Dijon driver suffered
from mental illness, had received psychiatric care over 150
times in the past 13 years and had no ideological motive.

They also said they had not found any link between the
events in Dijon and the Saturday attack in Joue-les-Tours, which
is being probed by counter-terrorism prosecutors in Paris.

The attacker in Joue-les-Tours, a 20-year-old Burundi
national and convert to Islam named Bertrand, had written a will
in which he asked God to "give him strength", Paris prosecutor
Francois Molins told a news conference.

Two days before attacking the police station, Bertrand
imitated his brother in posting on his Facebook page a flag of
the extremist group that calls itself Islamic State, Molins
said.
(Additional reporting by Gregory Blachier in Paris, writing by
Natalie Huet; Editing by Dominic Evans, Toni Reinhold)